The Bad Guys Know It Too
by brihun2388
Summary: After Sam gets kidnapped, then rescued, John makes an assumption, and it's up too Dean to his father straight, and show him not only how much Sam means to the family, but that others see it too.


* **Disclaimer * I do not own Supernatural, and I do not make any money by writting (** **unfortunately** **)**

 ***To those of you following 'Heros and Hunters' as well as 'Bobbys Secret', I started** **writing those again! I just wrote this one shot to get the juices flowing again, and to let everyone know I am still alive and well. Happy Reading!**

 ***ENJOY!* **

It was a horde of ghouls. John, Sam, and Dean knew that the monsters would behave as human, thinking and looking wise, but what they weren't counting on, was their ability to analyze a situation.

Currently, the three Winchester men were fighting these ghouls. It was a bigger pack than they originally thought. John was battling 3, which left Sam with two, and Dean with two.

Things have been looking up for the small family ever since Sam hit his height of six feet. At sixteen he was as tall as Dean, and looked as if he still had room to grow. With this new advantage, he was able to fight as well as his two older family members. As a downfall, he was still in the awkward limbs part of development, and would make simple mistakes. In this case? He tripped over his own foot, and landed right into one of the ghouls arms.

Quicker than a jack rabbit, the ghoul got Sam into a position he couldn't get out, by grabbing both of his arms. Just as fast, the second ghoul grabbed quick hold of Sam's legs, and lifted him up the ground between the two of them. With panic in his mind and his weapon fallen to the ground, he yelled out the name that is just as good, if not better than the word help.

"DEAN!"

Dean was having problems with his two ghouls. They might as well have eaten several defensive fighters with the way they were blocking and dodging his punches and kicks.

By this time he would have checked on his father and Sam, even standing by his brothers' side, but he knew taking his eyes off these two ghouls in front of him would be the biggest mistake of his life. Well, second biggest.

Finally he got the perfect opportunity to take one out. He calculated where the ghoul was going to be and dodged, and swung his machete hard. The head came off splattering blood everywhere. The second ghoul was only stunned for a moment, but it gave Dean the chance to take a look around. He saw his father only had two ghouls to go as opposed to the three the poor man started off with. Then before he had a chance to turn to his brother, he heard his name being yelled in a panic, by the very person he was just about to turn his attention too.

" _Dean!"_

Dean just about gave himself whiplash turning his head in the direction of his brother, who he saw was in deep shit.

His brother was struggling hard, but was caught between the two ghouls he was supposed to be fighting. They weren't hurting him, but they were starting to make a run with him. Dean didn't know where the hell those two skin suckers were taking his brother, but he certainly wasn't going to let them take him far.

He was just about to make a run towards his brother, when the last ghoul he was fighting ran into him, and knocked him right to the ground. The wind was knocked out of him, but he managed to pull himself together, fight this monster, and get going towards his brother.

Sam started to squirm and twist his body as the two ghouls were carrying him further and further away from his family. He saw the dear in a headlights look on Dean's face, and just as quickly, saw his brother being attacked from behind, as he was being carried further and further away.

"Where the hell are you taking me?!" Sam screamed while still struggling. _Damn it these guys were strong._

The ghouls didn't seem too worried about Sam's shouts of protest, or his useless movements trying to dislodge himself, but once they got inside the intended tomb, they harshly placed Sam's body on the hard stone slab making him jolt. Once he realized the ghouls were no longer holding him, he made a hard roll off the high stone slab. He saw the door, and started to make a mad dash for it, but one of the ghouls grabbed him hard, and threw him into the base of the slab. Sam laid there panting threw the pain, and couldn't move as the other monster easily picked him up, and placed him back onto the slab. They didn't give him a chance to escape again, and each one took a wrist, tied a leather strap around it, and secured it to a big rusted bolt that was secured to the edge of the slab. Sam felt all four of his limbs tied down tightly, and tested the strength of his bonds, only to find he wouldn't be getting out of them by himself.

"HELP! DEAN! DAD!"

One of the ghouls put a cold clammy hand over Sam's mouth to silence him. He continued to keep screaming, but a muffled mess was all that was audible. His eyes saw the second ghoul moving towards him, and his eyes widened when he saw what it was holding. A super shard butchers knife.

He continued to struggle against the bonds, as well as tried to scream threw the hand holding his mouth shut, but nothing was working.

As fast as he could blink, the ghoul walking towards him with the knife was knocked hard to the ground. The action made Sam jump from where he was being held down, but he quickly became relieved by knowing his big brother was there. A smile came across his face underneath the dead hand of the ghoul holding Sam's mouth. The monster seemed to sigh in frustration before pulling his hand away from Sam's mouth, and moving.

Dean had just finished bashing this bastard's skull in. Once he entered the tomb, and saw him coming towards his brother with that huge knife, he acted quickly, and just knocked the thing to the ground, making sure to kill him out right by bashing his skull in with his gun. He got up from the bloodied corpse, and instantly made eye contact with his taken brother.

Only Dean could make bashing a ghouls head in cool. Then started walking over to his tied up brother.

"Dean there's a second one."

"I know, but he ran, have to untie you first."

Dean was fast at making the leather straps around Sam's wrists disappear, and just as fast, the straps around his ankles were gone. Sam didn't even have a chance to sit himself up, when Dean already had one hand behind the kids back and the other settled in the center of his chest. As much trouble as Sam gives him, Dean is just assessing him with his eyes, making sure he's ok.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

Sam shook his head. "No."

"Good."

Suddenly John comes bursting in the tomb gun raised. Dean is instantly in front of Sam thinking its danger, but the moment he sees his father, he is relaxed.

"You boys alright? Sam?" Both boys shook their heads 'yes.' "Good. Sammy what the hell happened back there? How did you let the ghouls get the drop on you?"

The happy moment of Dean coming to the rescue of his little brother, an always great opportunity of Sam looking up to his big brother as if he hung the moon, was gone. Sam let his head droop, and Dean let out an exhausted sigh. Sam didn't want to make eye contact with his dad, knowing the disappointment look that always masked the concerned look shining through.

"They just surprised me…"

"Son I taught you better than that!" John ran a hand down his face. "Ok, we all need to get back to the motel, get cleaned up, and sure enough, we will have a lengthy discussion about what happened here tonight. Come on!"

Sam was about to jump down from the stone slab he was still sitting on. He felt so defeated inside that he got captured by the bad guy, again. It wasn't his fault that he had a huge supernatural target on his back saying 'Come get me!'

Dean knew it wasn't Sam's fault that the bad guys always went after him. Even though Sam was taught by both John and Dean, he was still growing, and learning, and years behind in practice of both older men. And even though he may be tall, he hasn't quit developed the amount of muscle mass as John and Dean have. And until he gets out of that awkward stage of teenage years, he will still be the youngest, the weakest, and therefore, the one most likely to be grabbed by the big baddy of the hunt.

Not knowing if his brother was sporting anymore injuries, Dean helped Sam down off the stone alter, and guided him along down the path to the impala. Dean kept Sam close by his side, while wielding his gun in his free hand. He kept looking around for any rouge ghouls that could have escaped their wrath, but so far he saw nothing, but you could never be too sure, especially with a somewhat injured brother by his side. Nothing was getting past him to hurt his brother. Not now, and not in the future if he could help it.

The car ride home was filled with silence. John was driving, Dean was in the front, and Sam was in the back. He wasn't really hurt physically, but emotionally he wanted to cry. His father was disappointed in him again, and even though he should have been able to fight off both those ghouls, he just wasn't up to the challenge. Of course John was expecting him as perfect as Dean was at that age, but they were two completely different people threw and threw, and his father didn't see that. He never would.

Back at the motel, Sam and Dean entered first, followed by John. Right away Dean sat Sam down on the bed, and started checking him over for any kind of cuts or bruises that may need to be addressed. The only thing he could find, were Sam's wrists being chaffed by the way he fought against the leather restraints. Dean carefully picked up one wrist, put a soothing crème on it, and wrapped it lightly in a bandage. He was starting to do the same thing to the other wrist, when John spoke up.

"Ok Sam, what happened back there?"

Dean only had his attention on taking care of Sam at the moment. Plus, there's no way his dad could say this one-hundred percent Sam's fault? Surely he could see that?

Sam also wasn't making eye contact with his father.

"I told you, I'm not used to fighting more than one enemy, they seemed super strong, and they caught me completely off guard." Just then Dean had finished taking care of Sam's wrists. He walked away into the bathroom to take a shower, and let John and Sam talk father to son.

John took in the information and was processing it accordingly. Then he sighed.

"Sammy look, I know Dean and myself haven't exactly been…paying much attention to you as of late, and I am sorry about that, but son, there are better ways for you to gain our attention."

Sam thought he knew where this conversation was going. His dad was going to say 'your brother was well trained at your age, why can't you be more like Dean, you need a lot more training blah blah blah.' But Sam wasn't prepared for what John just said, and stared at him blankly.

"What?"

"Look, I know you are capable of taking out monsters, and I know that you could have at least killed one of those ghouls on your own. You're not a rookie at this, yet you are making extremely rookie mistakes. Now that your old enough to stay by yourself, I know I've been taking extra hunts, and your brother has been busy with his part time job and helping me on those hunts when he can, that you haven't been getting as much attention as you did before. Once in a while I would stay home and make dinner, Dean would hang out with you every available moment he could, but now that we're both very busy, I know it would be tempting to…how do I say this? Tempting to gain Dean and mine's attention, even if it means purposely getting kidnapped so we save you."

Sam jumped up from the bed in a flash.

"WHAT?!" Sam couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You think I'm getting kidnapped on purpose?! Are you insane?!"

"Well son what do you expect me to think?! You get in trouble more times in a month then Dean ever did in his life! And I know you're a good hunter, Both Dean and I saw to that! So what other excuse could there be?"

Sam could not believe his ears!

"You think I like being kidnapped every other hunt? Or threatened? Or used against you and Dean as leverage or bait?! Are you insane?!"

"Sam, if you need Dean or myself to give you more attention, I'm sure we could figure something out."

"This is crazy, First of all I am not some hormonal teenage girl who needs attention every five minutes, and I am certainly not intentionally getting in trouble, so that you and Dean will give me attention!"

"Sam…"

"No dad, I'm not going to sit around and have you accuse me of something I have no control over!"

With that Sam started towards the door, grabbed his coat, and just left.

John sat down on the edge of the bed. He knew he was jumping to conclusions, but Sam was a smart and capable young man. Why would he be in danger almost every hunt, when he was more than capable for taking care of himself in a fight. Just then Dean walked out of the steamy bathroom with his sleep pants on and a tight white shirt. He quickly looked around the small motel room, and frowned.

"Where's Sam?"

"I said something that upset him, but he'll be back."

Dean went on the defensive. "Well what the hell did you say to him that would make him leave?"

"Have you noticed Sam getting into trouble on the hunts? I get that he's younger, but there's no reason for him to get captured as many times as he does, just for us to come to his rescue. Do you think he could be doing it to get our attention?"

Dean froze where he stood. Did his father just accuse Sam of getting kidnapped and hurt on purpose? Just to get some attention from his family?

"Dad that is insane! If Sam wants to spend more time with us, he tells us in his own way. For example when I was watching a movie I love, and Sam just sat down next to me with a bowl of popcorn, or the time you were working on your truck and he just sat there and observed you, or if one of us goes to the store and he asks to come with. There may not be a lot of action, maybe no talking even, but that's some form of spending time together, and it makes him happy. He doesn't need this huge scenario where he gets kidnapped and you and I have to save him and have a huge heart to heart after. It's the simple times that make him happy."

"Well how do you explain him getting kidnapped all the time, when he can take care of himself?"

Dean looked down at his lap and smirked before looking back up at his dad.

"Really dad? It isn't obvious?"

"What is?"

"What is our number one weakness?"

"Dean I…"

"No truthfully, what is our number one weakness."

John sighed. "It's Sam."

"Right, now Let's pretend you and I are hunting a pack of werewolves. We see three of them, two are standing around doing something wolf like, but the third one is sitting all quiet, obviously the youngest. Right away we see how the other act around the third. They always make sure of their surroundings, they always look back to make the third is still there and safe, they make sure all the weapons are in top notch condition just in case there is danger around. When they do hear a strange sound, the two puff out their chests, and strategically move around so that they are blocking the third one from any kind of harm. The smart person would go after the third one, because if they have 'im, they know they can make the other two whatever they want. Well, the supernatural see it too. They can see or even sense how we act around Sam. The way we always make sure he's in the middle of as we walk, or how he's in the middle of us if we have to enter a haunted building, the way we always have him in our sights no matter what, the way that if there is any chance of a threat nearby, we puff out our chests and put him behind us. Of course the Supernatural goes after Sammy. A blind man could see how much he means to us, and how much it would hurt us if anything bad happened to him. Telling him that he's getting taken on purpose?! No way in hell he would put us threw that, because he is as protective as us, as we are of him. He would never put us in harm's way intentionally, just for him to seek attention."

John thought about it. How could he be so damn stupid? Sam is a smart kid, and he certainly would ask for attention in his own way. John des remember Sam just randomly spending time with him for no reason, and once they went back inside, his youngest seem to be just a little bit happier. They didn't need to talk about things to spend time together. Just being there in each other's presence was enough for his boy.

"You're right. I made a horrible mistake. What was I thinking?"

"I don't know. But I will go out there, and find him so you can make it right."

Dean quickly finished getting the rest of his clothes on, made sure his gun was loaded, and headed out the door without so much as a goodbye, leaving John alone with his thoughts and regrets.

Sam was walking along the darkened street. How could his father think that he would purposely put himself in danger just to get his family's attention! That was absurd! It certainly wasn't his fault that everything that went bump in the night was attracted to him. That he was a magnet for everything dangerous!

Sam wasn't paying attention to the world around him, until a cold hand came tightly across his mouth, and another arm came across his chest. He struggled and fought until he was tightly pressed against a chest, and a mouth came next to his ear. He didn't recognize who it was until he heard it speak.

"Ssshhh relax now young one."

Sam recognized that voice. It was one of the ghouls from the cemetery! It must have escaped and followed them to the motel.

Sam struggled harder against the hold, but the ghoul was just as strong as it was at the cemetery. Suddenly a loud shot was heard. It made Sam flinch and yell behind the hand holding his mouth. He was shocked to see blood splattered all of the ground in front of him. Before anything else happened, he could feel the cold extra dead body being torn away from behind him. He would have gone down with the corpse, but another hand roughly pushed him in the opposite direction, making him land on the ground away from the carnage. And when he looked up, he saw Dean, with a loaded smoking gun in his hand, then his attention was drawn to the now dead ghoul on the cement. Dean ever so slightly turned his head away from the ghoul, and kept his concerned eyes on Sam.

"You alright?"

Sam nodded his head 'yes'. Dean gave a little smile, and held out his hand. Sam took it and let himself be helped up. Even though the ghoul was good and dead, Dean still put Sam more in back of him than not, making sure there was enough distance between him and the threat.

"How did you know one of them escaped?"

"I didn't. Dad told me about what he said about you, and I came after you. This whole saving you twice in one hunt thing was pure coincidence."

Sam lowered his head down and started nervously rubbing at his neck.

"Yeah Dean about that, I'm sorry I mess up, but I swear I would never do anything to intentionally put you or dad in danger! I swear!"

Sam was now looking up at his brother with big huge sad puppy dog eyes. Dean's own facial expression softened at the horribly pathetic look he was being given.

"I know you wouldn't, and I told dad that too. Sometimes he forgets that you and I are just different, not to mention I have four years more of hunting experience than you do."

"But, you were a way better hunter at my age, and you've never been kidnapped before."

That was true. Dean wasn't ever kidnapped by anything, but that didn't mean that he still wasn't flawed in one way or another.

"You want to know why the bad guys always focus on you?" Sam shook his head yes. "It's because, they know that by taking you, they have leverage over us. It's not because you're weak, but it's because we are weak _without_ you. Them having you, means they can demand whatever they want, and they will get it. They take me on the other hand, and you think dad will give up anything? No way. But if those ghouls had you to point where we couldn't save you on the spot? Dad and I would give them anything they wanted to get you back. And the bad guys know it. They know we would give our souls for you before seeing you hurt."

"That makes me a burden, I hold you guys back."

Dean just shook his head. "No. It makes me fight harder, and it makes me want to track down every single son of a bitch on this planet and kill them, just so they wouldn't get a chance to touch you. You're not my burden, you're my determination. You got that?"

Sam smiled shyly and shook his head. "Thanks Dean."

"Yeah no problem kiddo. Now dad feels like shit for what he said to you. Let's get you back there, and we can all watch a movie, deal?"

Sam and Dean started walking back towards the motel room.

"Dean, what about the ghoul body?"

"Oh yeah."

Dean walked back over to the dead ghoul, gave it a good kick, picked it up, and chucked it into the forest, into a nearby thick bush.

"There. Now it's the bugs' problems"

The boys began walking again.

"Oh Sammy, tell ANYONE about our chick flick moment? And next time I'll just let the bad guy keep you."

Sam gave out a hearty laugh. "Sure Dean. Sure."


End file.
